{"id":372062,"date":"2026-03-29T22:51:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T22:51:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/372062\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T22:51:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T22:51:14","slug":"calls-for-public-inquiry-50-years-on-from-sallins-train-robbery-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/372062\/","title":{"rendered":"Calls for public inquiry 50 years on from Sallins train robbery \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cEvery time I wake, even to this day, from a nap or from a night\u2019s sleep or whatever, for a few seconds I am in terror,\u201d says Osgur Breatnach.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t last long but it\u2019s there, that something terrible is going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking days before the 50th anniversary of the Sallins<\/a> train robbery, in which an estimated \u00a3200,000 was stolen, Breatnach says he still suffers from PTSD from the case that \u201cshattered my life\u201d.<\/p>\n

He was one of three men, alongside Nicky Kelly and Brian McNally, to be wrongfully convicted by the Special Criminal Court<\/a> for the robbery.<\/p>\n

\"NickyNicky Kelly in 2016. Photograph: Eric Luke <\/p>\n

Describing being \u201cbeaten\u201d by detectives in a tunnel which connected Bridewell Garda<\/a> station to the Four Courts, he recalls being told by them that he robbed the train.<\/p>\n

It was at this moment he realised he was being \u201cframed\u201d, he says. \u201cThat\u2019s the moment that sticks out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Breatnach says his career, health and personal life have been \u201cdestroyed\u201d, and despite being falsely accused, wrongly convicted and imprisoned for two years, the \u201ccover-up is worse than the crime\u201d.<\/p>\n

He is confident there will be an independent public inquiry and a State apology, though acknowledges he \u201cmay not be alive to see it\u201d.<\/p>\n

In its absence, Breatnach says the \u201ctrauma is still continuing every day\u201d.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Sallins Train Robbery: a miscarriage of justice with no closureOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The Special Criminal Court had accepted as evidence confessions made by the men, which they insisted had been beaten out of them by garda\u00ed.<\/p>\n

Breatnach was sentenced to 12 years\u2019 penal servitude while McNally was sentenced to nine.<\/p>\n

However, they were released from prison in 1980 after the appeal court quashed their convictions on the basis that their confessions had been obtained under \u201coppression\u201d. <\/p>\n

Kelly, meanwhile, was sentenced to 12 years too, though in absentia, after he fled Ireland and ultimately ended up in the US.<\/p>\n

When the IRA ultimately claimed responsibility for the robbery in 1980, Kelly recalls that he \u201cjust wanted to get home\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI landed at Shannon Airport, and I thought now that the truth had come out there would be no problems. I was arrested, detained and held for four and a half years in jail for something I did not do,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a journey in life that I wouldn\u2019t wish on anybody,\u201d Kelly says, adding that it has \u201cmade me a worse kind of individual in some ways\u201d.<\/p>\n

While imprisoned, he went on hunger strike for 37 days, something that almost killed him.<\/p>\n

\"19761976 – 9\/4\/1976 – Osgur Breatnach (right) being arrested outside the High Court, in Dublin, on April 9th, 1976. Photograph: Dermot O’Shea <\/p>\n

Speaking from an assisted-living apartment in Dublin, where he is temporarily staying while \u201cin and out\u201d of hospital, he says hunger strikes \u201calways catch up on you\u201d.<\/p>\n

The 75-year-old, originally from Arklow, Co Wicklow, says his fear is that he \u201cwon\u2019t wake up in the morning and the scam of the Sallins case will have succeeded\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would hate to die in a hospital bed and the cover-up having succeeded,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

A benefit concert for the Sallins Inquiry Now campaign is being held in Dublin\u2019s Vicar Street on Sunday night.<\/p>\n

Cormac Breatnach, Osgur Breatnach\u2019s brother, who has been assisting the campaign, notes that the three men are \u201cstill with us for the moment\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are many people knocking on the Government door, but they\u2019re not opening it. They\u2019re not listening, and what does that say about the Government if they\u2019re not listening to us?\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

A spokesman for the Department of Justice noted the overturning of Breatnach and McNally\u2019s convictions, the presidential pardon given to Kelly in 1992, and the \u201csubsequent payment of financial settlements\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added that the safeguards available at the time were \u201cvery different to those in place now\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIreland now has a robust system of independent oversight of policing in addition to a human rights ethos underpinning policing practice and the Garda Code of Ethics,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Asked about ongoing calls for a public inquiry and a State apology, the spokesman said \u201cin light of the developments since 1976 set out above\u201d, Minister for Justice Jim O\u2019Callaghan \u201cis satisfied that a public inquiry in relation to these matters is not warranted\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cEvery time I wake, even to this day, from a nap or from a night\u2019s sleep or whatever,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372063,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[45,61,60,3770,43,108484,31297],"class_list":{"0":"post-372062","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-an-garda-siochana","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-kildare","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-sallins","14":"tag-special-criminal-court"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372062\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}